Russia launches investigation of Russian steamship agencies

Russia's Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) has initiated a case against Russian agents of the largest marine container shippers for violating the antimonopoly law.
In a press release, the FAS said it "suspects that 'Maersk' CJSC, 'Mediterranean Shipping Company Rus' Ltd., 'CMA CGM Rus' Ltd., 'APL SNG' Ltd., 'K' Line RUS' Ltd., 'NYK Line RUS' Ltd., 'OOCL Russia Limited' Ltd., 'China Shipping Agency Russia' Ltd., 'Hende Merchant Marine CIS' Ltd., 'ZIM Russia' CJSC, 'COSCO RUSSIA' Ltd., 'Evergreen Shipping Agency Russian Limited' Ltd., 'Ocean Container Services MSK' Ltd. and 'Ocean Container Services' Ltd. were fixing or maintaining prices on the market of international ocean container shipping (a violation of Cause 1 Part 1 Article 11 of the Federal Law On Protection of Competition)."
The FAS said the case was initiated upon materials obtained in the course of several dozens of unscheduled on-site inspections of economic entities — in particular, Russian agents of marine container shippers, carried out by FAS together with the Ministry of Interior in 2013.
"Marine container transportation has a significant impact on development of international trade. The costs of shipping constitute a considerable share of the goods pieces, and price collusions on this market can have an extremely adverse effect on both the global economy and the economy of particular countries. Investigating the case on the 'ocean cartel', FAS shall evaluate actions of foreign shipping lines. There are the necessary legal grounds for doing this. And we hope for productive cooperation with foreign antimonopoly authorities," said Alexander Kinev, deputy head of FAS.